When shooting rifles and other firearms in sport or tactical situations, it is important that the firearm be maintained in a steady, stable position to insure accuracy of aim. Most shooters are not able to hold a firearm consistently in a set position without wavering, especially after the onset of fatigue resulting from strain due to the size and weight of the firearm.
Accordingly, peripheral support devices have been used in conjunction with firearms since the early creation of firearms as a means of stabilizing a firearm to reduce wavering and to improve accuracy.
In the past, shooters have used everything from large stationary objects such as rocks and tree branches to forked sticks, shooting slings, bipods and tripods. Early bipod and tripod supports typically were somewhat crude assemblies that generally were bulky, inconvenient and difficult to use and typically were not easily adjustable. In more recent times, supports have been developed that are compact and relatively lightweight and are mountable to the stock forearm of a firearm, such as a rifle, to make the bipods portable with the firearm. Most conventional supports include a pair of legs that can be pivoted from an up position adjacent the firearm stock, to a down position engaging a support surface, with the legs being optionally extensible to adjust the height of the support.
Most supports are not designed for quick and easy attachment and release of the support from the firearm stock. Other types of conventional supports offer varying types of mountings that can be fitted to various types of rifles without requiring modification or machining of the rifle stock. However, these support mounts do not provide for quickly releasing an attached support from the firearm.
Examples of firearm support assemblies are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,567,106, 8,443,540, 8,413,569, 8,104,213, 7,954,272, 7,992,339, 7,676,977, 7,631,455, 7,478,496, 7,426,800, 7,421,815, 6,763,627, 6,785,997 6,293,041, 6,289,622, 5,194,678, 4,265,045 and 2,807,904, US Patent Application Publication Nos. 2015012174 20150241160, 20110265366, 20100192449, 20090126250, 20080307689, 20030192223, GB Patents 2456545 and 1191389 and International Patent Publication No. WO2012009427, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
A need exists for improvements over known firearm support assemblies which provide enhanced capabilities that do not impede the operation of firearms in sport and tactical situations.